Upcoming Social Justice Book Club: In The Country We Love
February 2, 2017
The Albright Memorial Library’s Social Justice Book Club’s next meeting is Monday, March 13th at 6:30 pm. The group will be discussing In The Country We Love by Diane Guerrero. In the Country We Love is a moving, heartbreaking story of one woman’s extraordinary resilience in the face of the nightmarish struggles of undocumented residents in this country.
Borrow a copy of this month’s book club selection, In The Country We Love by Diane Guerrero, from the library or get a 40% discount when you order a book club title at Library Express, 2nd Floor at the Marketplace at Steamtown, 570-558-1670.
Other books on the Immigration experience:
Undocumented : a Dominican boy’s odyssey from a homeless shelter to the Ivy League by Dan-el Padilla Peralta.
“Throughout his youth, Dan-el navigated…two worlds: the rough streets of East Harlem, where he lived with his brother and his mother and tried to make friends, and the ultra-elite halls of a Manhattan private school, where he could immerse himself in a world of books and where he soon rose to the top of his class. From Collegiate, Dan-el went to Princeton, where he thrived, and where he made the momentous decision to come out as an undocumented student in a Wall Street Journal profile a few months before he gave the salutatorian’s traditional address in Latin at his commencement.”
American Passage : the history of Ellis Island by Vincent J. Cannato
“Historian Vincent J. Cannato illuminates the story of Ellis Island, from the 19th century days when it hosted pirate hangings, to the turn of the 20th century when massive migrations sparked fierce debate and hopeful new immigrants often encountered corruption, harsh conditions, and political scheming. Accounts of immigrants, officials, interpreters, and social reformers all play a role in the chronicle. Long after Ellis Island ceased to be the nation’s preeminent immigrant inspection station, the debates that swirled around it are still relevant.”
Nobody’s son : a memoir by Mark Slouka
“‘There comes a time in your life when the past decides to run you down,’ Mark Slouka writes in this heartbreaking and soul-searching memoir about one man’s attempt to reckon with the past. Born in Czechoslovakia, Mark Slouka’s parents survived the Nazis only to have to escape the Communist purges after the war. Smuggled out of their own country, the newlyweds joined a tide of refugees moving from Innsbruck to Sydney to New York, dragging with them a history of blood and betrayal that their son would be born into. From World War I to the present, Slouka pieces together a remarkable story of refugees and war, displacement and denial–admitting into evidence memories, dreams, stories, the lies we inherit and the lies we tell–in an attempt to reach his mother, the enigmatic figure at the center of the labyrinth. Her story, the revelation of her life-long burden and the forty-year love affair that might have saved her show the way out of the maze.”
The distance between us : a memoir by Reyna Grande.
“When Reyna Grande’s father leaves his wife and three children behind in a village in Mexico to make the dangerous trek across the border to the United States, he promises he will soon return from “El Otro Lado” (The Other Side) with enough money to build them a dream house where they can all live together. His promises become harder to believe as months turn into years. When he summons his wife to join him, Reyna and her siblings are deposited in the already overburdened household of their stern, unsmiling grandmother. The three siblings are forced to look out for themselves; in childish games they find a way to forget the pain of abandonment and learn to solve very adult problems. When their mother at last returns, the reunion sets the stage for a dramatic new chapter in Reyna’s young life: her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years, her long-absent father.”
Toward a better life : America’s new immigrants in their own words : from Ellis Island to the present by Peter Morton Coan
“This book offers a balanced, poignant, and often moving portrait of America’s immigrants over more than a century. The author has organized the book by decades so that readers can easily find the time period most relevant to their experience or that of family members. The first part covers the Ellis Island era, the second part America’s new immigrants—from the closing of Ellis Island in 1955 to the present. Also included is a comprehensive appendix of statistics showing immigration by country and decade from 1890 to the present, a complete list of famous immigrants, and much more. ”
Visit our catalog for more books on the Immigrant and Refugee Experience.
